New type of Astronomical Radio Object
I always find it exciting when something is discovered that has no current explanation. FRBs held that status for a few years but are now increasingly favoured as a property of magnetars. And there are of course ORCs (Odd Radio Circles).
But now there is a new type of radio signal called a GCRT (Galactic Center Radio Transient) – these (3 dicovered so far) are detected near the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy, and and give a glowing radio source that brightens and decays over the course of a few hours. Importantly they do not shine in the X-ray part of the spectrum, ruling out low mass star flares, pulsars and magnetars. They are also not visible in other parts of the spectrum – visible or infra-red. Another has just been reported that is much slower – it has repeated 13 times so far, never lasting more than a few weeks, then vanishing within a day – having no predictable schedule. The source of these energy signatures is currently unknown.
